Knoxville Poet Laureate Marilyn Kallet was recently honored by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Kallet, Professor Emerita of English at the University of Tennessee, is a longtime Fellow of the VCCA. She was recognized for her continued support of the organization, along with three other Fellows, at VCCA’s Spring Soiree, held May 2 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
The center is nationally and internationally acclaimed for nurturing writers, visual artists and composers by giving them time and space to “bring forth their finest works,” according to a press release. VCCA hosts more than 400 artist-Fellows annually at its Mt. San Angelo facility in Amherst, Va., and the Moulin à Nef Studio Center in Auvillar, France.
Artists are selected through competitive peer review on the basis of the important or innovative work they are doing in their respective fields. Founded in 1971, VCCA has hosted more than 6,000 writers, visual artists and composers.
Born in Montgomery, Ala., and reared in New York, Kallet attended Tufts University and the Sorbonne’s Cours de civilisation and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in comparative literature from Rutgers University. She had her first residency at the Virginia Center in 1981 and has returned 28 times since then. She has been in residence at Moulin à Nef three times.
Since 2009, she has led poetry workshops and writing residencies at Moulin à Nef. Next month she will return to France to mentor the “Writing the River” residency in Auvillar.
She is the author of 18 books, including “How Our Bodies Learned, Poetry from Black Widow Press” (2018).
Mountain Makins Festival wins another Kaleidoscope Award
The Mountain Makins Festival in Morristown earned a Kaleidoscope Award at the Southeast Festivals and Events Association’s Kaleidoscope Awards in Pigeon Forge recently. Top festivals and events throughout the Southeast were honored during the SFEA’s annual conference.
Mountain Makins Festival Director Beccy Hamm receives the Silver Kaleidoscope Award for Best Festival in the Southeast from Southeast Festivals and Events Executive Director Lisa McCray.
Rose Center’s Mountain Makins Festival was given the 2019 Silver Award for Best Festival in the Southeast for festivals with a budget under $75,000.
“It’s exciting to be chosen for another SFEA Kaleidoscope Best Festival Award for 2019,” said Beccy Hamm, festival director for Mountain Makins Festival. “Recognition like this brings a lot of attention for our event, and new visitors from around the Southeast.”
In 2016, Mountain Makins won the SFEA Gold Award for Best Festival with a budget under $75,000.
The 44th Annual Mountain Makins Festival will be held at Rose Center Oct. 26-28, 2019. Applications for craft and food vendors are now available through the Rose Center website.
Rose Center, 442 W. 2nd North St. in Morristown, is a museum and community cultural center. The museum features monthly art exhibits, a local artists’ sales gallery, a children’s museum, a history museum, concerts and more. Office hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. More info: 423-581-4330.